Heroin In The Drive-Thru? McDonald's Employee Busted

A McDonald's Happy Meal was allegedly part of a secret drug market run out of a drive-thru window at one of the restaurants in Pittsburgh.

Eric RisbergAP

Originally published on January 30, 2014 4:10 am

Undercover police officers say they bought heroin at a McDonald's in Pittsburgh, acting on a tip that included a code phrase. An employee allegedly sold heroin out of the restaurant's drive-thru window to any customer who said, "I'd like to order a toy."

"Customers then would be told to proceed to the first window, where they were handed a Happy Meal box containing stamp packets of the drug," reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Police say they received 10 of the packets in their Happy Meal box at the McDonald's in the city's East Liberty neighborhood. Officers who arrested Shantia Dennis, 26, say they found that she had another 50 packets of heroin.

"Another McDonald's employee was arrested this month for selling heroin out of a restaurant in nearby Murrysville," the AP says. "Authorities said the heroin recovered Wednesday does not appear to be related to the fentanyl-laced heroin blamed for 22 overdose deaths in southwestern Pennsylvania."

The restaurant's manager and owner would not discuss the arrest with the Post-Gazette, the newspaper says.